During the last decade, intensive poultry farming methods to increase productivity, has resulted in an increase of disease manifestation throughout all major poultry producing countries. This has caused an increasing need for new and better vaccines and vaccination programs to control these diseases. Nowadays, most animals are immunized against a number of diseases of viral and bacterial origin. Examples of viral diseases in poultry are Newcastle Disease, Infectious Bronchitis, Avian Pneumovirus, Fowlpox, Infectious Bursal Disease etc.
Examples of bacterial diseases are Avian Coryza caused by Haemophilus paragallinarum (upper respiratory tract), Bordetella avium (upper respiratory tract), Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (lower respiratory tract), Salmonella infections (digestive tract), Pasteurella multocida, which is the causative agent of fowl cholera (septicemic), and E. coli infections.
Therefore, the technical problem underlying this invention was to identify a new bacterial poultry disease, to provide the causative agent of said disease and to provide a vaccine to prevent said disease.